Ford-UAW to add 650 Michigan jobs in support of F-150 production

Photo courtesy Ford Motor Co.

DEARBORN February, 4, 2015– Ford Motor Company will be adding new hourly workers to its workforce between now and March, in support of the 2015 F-150. Ford said today that it will add more than 1,500 jobs — 650 of those will be here in Michigan.

Of the 650 new Michigan jobs, 500 will be located at Dearborn Stamping and Dearborn Diversified and 150 jobs will be at Sterling Axle in Sterling Heights. The remaining 900 will go to Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant.

According to the Detroit News, all of the new hires have already been identified.

Dearborn Truck Plant recently added a third shift to make the aluminum-bodied F-150, and Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant recently installed the new equipment needed to build it.

“The fact that we’re focusing on is that we’re hiring more people, and the reason we’re hiring more people is to support sales of the truck,” said Bill Dirksen, Ford’s vice president of labor affairs. “That’s a good thing for our business.”

Jimmy Settles, UAW vice president and director, National Ford Department, said in a statement, “This is very exciting news and these additional jobs will have an impact in communities all across our nation. This also represents a major milestone for employees hired under the entry-level agreement, as many will now begin to convert to ‘new traditional’ wage status, as negotiated in the 2011 collective bargaining agreement.”

It marks the first time that any of the union’s members have moved up to a higher pay scale since it agreed to two-tier wages in 2007; General Motors Co. and FCA US LLC don’t have cap limits.

Ford has hired more than 15,000 hourly UAW members since 2011, exceeding its goal of creating 12,000 hourly jobs in the United States by 2015.

Ford said Tuesday that last month was the best-selling January for its F-Series trucks since 2004. Ford said the new aluminum-bodied pickup represented 18 percent of F-150 sales.